


Hope Springs Eternal

by torino10154



Series: Hope Series [1]
Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-06
Updated: 2010-04-06
Packaged: 2017-10-11 16:40:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/114463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torino10154/pseuds/torino10154





	Hope Springs Eternal

**Title:** Hope Springs Eternal  
**Pairings:** Severus/Harry (pre-slash), Past Harry/Ginny  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word count:** 1,100  
**Warning:** Pre-slash, canon compliant except that Snape lives, past off-screen character death  
**Prompt:** 237: Severus is Albus Severus's godfather and in love with Harry.  
**Summary:** See prompt.  
**A/N:** Thanks to [](http://accioslash.insanejournal.com/profile)[**accioslash**](http://accioslash.insanejournal.com/) for running this fest again! And thanks to my beta, [](http://jadzialove.insanejournal.com/profile)[**jadzialove**](http://jadzialove.insanejournal.com/). *hugs* Any mistakes that remain are mine alone. Original link is [here](http://asylums.insanejournal.com/snape_potter/420885.html).

"Severus!" Harry says as he greets him, eyes bright, grinning broadly. "I'm so glad you could make it. Al will be beside himself."

"As if I would miss my godson's coming of age," Severus huffs as if offended. It's true, of course, he wouldn't. Albus is a remarkable child, excellent at Potions like both his godfather and grandmother, a Slytherin in a house of Gryffindors. However, it's Harry that Severus wants to see, Harry that he wants to be near, Harry he wants to cling to and never ever let go of.

"Can I get you a drink? Whisky? Champagne?" Harry busies himself at the sidebar. He's aged well, laugh lines around his eyes, hair lightly sprinkled with grey. Life as an Auror has kept him fit—Severus can hardly keep his eyes off the charcoal trousers that hug his thighs and arse.

"Whisky neat." His voice is rough. Harry turns to look at him, brows furrowing.

"You aren't getting ill, are you?" Since when is Harry his mother? Severus rolls his eyes in reply and Harry laughs. "Look at me trying to take care of you! Ought to be the other way around."

_I want to take care of you, Harry. Hold you, kiss you, fuck you, love you._ Severus sips his drink to keep from spilling his secrets. How he's managed so many long years without revealing himself he'll never know. Well, he always was a good actor. He smirks as he raises his glass.

"To my godson!"

"To Al!" Harry replies and drinks his champagne, Severus watching his throat working. Would that he were swallowing something else.

"Severus," Albus says as he walks into the room. Nearly as tall as his father now, he truly has become a man. He reaches his hand out to shake Severus's, his grip strong.

"Albus, I understand congratulations are in order," Severus says as he reaches into the pocket of his robes to retrieve the item he fetched from his Gringotts vault this very morning.

"Severus," Harry breathes as Albus shows him the antique wristwatch they both know once belonged to a different Albus.

"I'm afraid I have never been able to get it to work properly," Severus says a bit disingenuously, as he's never really tried. At first he didn't want the thing, as looking at it only reminded him of its former owner; however, once Harry named him Albus's godfather, he knew precisely who he'd end up giving it to someday. "Perhaps it will work better for you."

"Thank you, Severus." Albus hugs him and he tentatively places a hand on the boy's back before shrugging him off.

"Enough of that," Severus says shortly. "Run along now, for surely the rest of your unruly family are in the garden waiting for you to begin the festivities."

Albus thanks him again and grins, but it isn't his father's smile. Oddly, only when Albus smiles does he look more like his mother. Severus frowns at the thought as he watches the boy leave.

"That was an extraordinary gift, Severus." It's Harry speaking and Severus had almost forgotten he was in the room. Maybe he was trying to forget actually. After all these years, he is tired of pretending, tired of returning to his solitary life, just plain tired.

Severus sits down in a chair by the fire, imposing on his host perhaps.

"Would you care for a game of chess?" Harry asks pulling out the board.

"You'll be missed."

"The children know how to get along without me." Now that his wife is dead, Harry likely needs to learn to get along without them as well.

"No, I'd rather not," Severus replies, finishing his drink. "You have other guests to entertain."

"You don't need to go," Harry says, laying a hand on Severus's arm, the warmth traveling though the layers of clothing until it feels as if his hand is upon bare flesh. Severus pulls back as if burned, and in some ways, he is. The temptation is too great, he wants to pull Harry to him, ravish him, and hide him away from everyone, shouting, "Mine!"

"I should though." Severus looks into green eyes, eyes he loves, eyes he has always loved, for as long as he can remember. "Give Albus my best."

"Of course, Severus, thank you for coming," Harry says as if resigned. Severus dare not think about what that might mean.

"Dad." Lily bursts into the room, long auburn hair done in two plaits twined with bold blue ribbon to match her robes. "James wants you to play, to even out the Quidditch teams."

"OK, Lily. Can you walk Severus to the door please?" Harry then looks at Severus again and smiles his beautiful smile that crinkles his nose and highlights his crow's feet. Severus loves it, loves what this man has become. "I'll owl you. It was good to see you, Severus."

"And you, Harry." As Harry leaves, Severus tries not to think about what he'll do once Albus has left Hogwarts and he has no reason to visit Harry any longer. He takes his cloak from the hook in the front hall and smoothly slips it on.

"Severus?" Lily stops them when they reach the front door.

"Yes?" He sees more of her mother in her face rather than her grandmother. He tries not to hold it against her any more than he does against her oldest brother for having the most appalling name in the history of Hogwarts.

She gets up on her tiptoes and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Before he can ask her what on earth she thinks she's doing, she grasps his shoulders and whispers in his ear, "Don't give up."

"What are you—" he starts to ask—he's never known her to babble nonsense at him before, but surely she means something different that what he's understood.

She looks at him like _he's_ the dunderhead, rolling her eyes like fifteen-year-olds do the world over.

"He needs a little more time," she says quietly, her expression falling. It's only been a year since Ginny died. She opens the door for him, and Severus walks out into the light drizzle, not bothering to cast an Impermeable charm on his cloak.

Harry circles high above the house, and when he spots Severus, waves wildly like a child boarding the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Severus thinks he's lucky not to fall off his broom, the fool. Raising a single hand, Severus then turns and makes his way down the lane to the Apparation point.

If he seems happier, more hopeful, the flowers and the trees say nothing about it.

  


  
_Hope arouses, as nothing else can arouse, a passion for the possible._

~William Sloane Coffin


End file.
